CHAPTER 11: IMPROVING DECISION MAKING AND      MANAGING KNOWLEDGE

Case Study : SHOULD A COMPUTER GRADE YOUR ESSAYS?

Question 1 : How “intelligent” is automated essay grading? Explain your answer.

The ability to communicate in natural language has long been considered a defining characteristic of human intelligence. Furthermore, we hold our ability to express ideas in writing as a pinnacle of this uniquely human language facility—it defies formulaic or algorithmic specification. So it comes as no surprise that attempts to devise computer programs that evaluate writing are often met with resounding skepticism. Nevertheless, automated writing-evaluation systems might provide precisely the platforms we need to elucidate many of the features that characterize good and bad writing, and many of the linguistic, cognitive, and other skills that underlie the human capacity for both reading and writing. Using computers to increase our under standing of the textual features and cognitive skills involved in creating and comprehending written text will have clear benefits. It will help us develop more effective instructional materials for improving reading, writing, and other human communication abilities. It will also help us develop more effective technologies, such as search engines and questionanswering systems, for providing universal access to electronic information. A sketch of the brief history of automated writing-evaluation research and its future directions might lend some credence to this argument.

Question 2: How effective is automated essay grading ?

First, virtually every automated system generates scores that correlate with the ratings of human judges as closely as human judges agree with one another. The high correlations might reflect the interrelatedness of different elements in naturally occurring compositions writers who produce well-organized passages also use a rich vocabulary and carefully revise mechanics. Experiments with test passages in which the various elements are independently varied (that is, well organized but with poor mechanics, or strong vocabulary but with lots of misspellings) would show how the different systems in this issue respond to different elements.

Second, all three essays take for granted the reading–writing connection. In most non academic settings, this connection undergirds writing tasks. For example, when an engineer prepares an evaluation report on a new widget, she first learns about the widget, then outlines the report’s main points (often using a model), studies other documents for background, and finally prepares a draft. Reading and writing intertwine continuously. In school, however, traditions separate reading and writing in all but a few settings, mostly in the later grades and college-bound tracks.

Question 3 : What are the benefits of automated essay grading? What are the drawbacks?

          The two  benefits of automated essay grading are speed and cost. The e-rater program can score 16,000 essays in 20 seconds. Many of the AES programs are free or share revenues with the universities and colleges that use them.

The drawbacks include the inability of AES programs to distinguish fact from fiction. The programs put more emphasis on length of essays rather than quality. If the use of AES programs continue to proliferate, writing instruction may be dumbed down to meet the limited and rigid metrics machines are capable of measuring rather than increasing the quality of writing.

Another major drawback may come from the number of teaching positions that could be eliminated if the programs are more widely used on campuses or in online educational courses.

Question 4: What management, organization, and technology factors should be considered when deciding whether to use AES?

Management: professors, instructors, and teachers in high schools, colleges, and universities must have their say in how the programs are used, to what extent they are incorporated in courses, and whether the programs are allowed to supplant humans or supplement them. Students must be given the opportunity to learn proper writing skills and not be subject to a simple pass/fail system.

Organization: universities and colleges must ensure that faculty is given the greatest amount of consideration and not just the bottom line of profit and loss. Economic motives to use AES systems to cut costs must not outweigh the desire and requirement to provide students with first-rate quality instruction. Educational standards must continue to be more important than the bottom line.

Technology: limitations in the program construction must be recognized and taken into account when the systems are used. The knowledge base and inference engines must continually be improved and proper “learning” techniques must be included in the programs. 

Question 5: Would you be suspicious of a low grade you received on a paper graded by AES software? Why or why not? Would you request a review by a human grader?

         Will probably be suspicious of a low grade they receive on a paper graded by AES software because of the lack of human understanding that’s inherent in the programs. Human grader if they receive a low grade. The problem is actually on the flip side if they receive a high score from an AES program they will not request a review and will assume their writing is excellent when in reality it may not be. 

CHAPTER 10 : E-COMMERCE (DIGITAL MARKETS , DIGITAL GOODS)

Case Study : CULTIVATING CUSTOMERS THE SOCIAL WAY

Question 1: Assess the people, organization, and technology issues for using social media engage with customer.

When we talk about people issues we should remember that each and every person will not be having an internet connection and social media account. And the way of use also matters because some people do not know how to use the social media too.

Organizations use social media for their advertisements and promotions. We think it is the best way of marketing because as technology increases people uses more social media networks also it allows people to access their websites or webpages through it but we can notice that lot of organizations have their social media accounts.

Question 2: What are the advantages and disadvantages of using social media for advertising, brand building, market research and customer service?

We think there are tremendous advantages of using social media for advertising because lot of companies requires promotions and advertisements to increase their brand value in customers and in the market. It also the best way to reach out to the customers to get their feedback and develop new products within their organization and also the companies can conduct various research strategies and get back their product value in the market.

Advantages:

·         Building Brand Awareness

One of the most obvious reasons for using Social Media Marketing is to build brand awareness and it certainly does if used correctly.

·         Reach a large Audience

Using social media to market out business online will without a doubt help us reach a larger audience. In a way, the more people we reach the better brand awareness we have but with social media, there is lot of noise. We need to make sure we use a tool like Hoot suite, so we can eliminate all of the noise and focus on reaching the people who want to engage with us.

·         Cost Effective

Social Media Marketing does not cost you a penny, unless you want it to. You can market on Facebook, Twitter, Google +, Pinterest and any social network for free. If we want to run competitions for use a few select third party tools, we may end up having small fee but on the whole, Social Media Marketing is very cost effective.

Disadvantages:

·         Understanding on how it works

We need to understand how social media works, when and how to use it and which channels to focus on depending on our end goal of using social media in order to get its full effects.

·         Commits illegal crime

Social media may open possibility for hackers to commit illegal crime such as fraud, spam and virus attacks. People falling prey to online scam may also increase, resulting in data or identity theft.

·         Negative effects on workers’ productivity

Results in lost productivity and employees may use social media to attack the company’s reputation. Instead of working in their time of work, they can waste such valuable time using social media channels such as Twitter, Facebook and many more. This may results in negative comments from employees use these sites to view objectionable, illicit or offensive material.

Question 3 : Give some examples of management decisions that were facilitated by using social media to interact with customers.

 ·  Vista-print poses marketing advice for small business. Vista-print is able to demonstrate that using Twitter and Facebook has directly increase profits.

·  Pradeep Kumar analysis social media data requires multiple tools and the flexibility to experiment with those tools to see what works and what doesn't.

·  Best Western International hotel provide a place for people to share their experiences about hotels, flights, restaurants and rentals. Visitors also can “Like” specific hotel page on the site.

Question 4: Should all companies use Facebook and Twitter for customer service and advertising? Why or why not? What kinds of companies are best suited to use these platforms?

Nowadays, people are not call up a company and complain or tell their feedback. Now, there are more likely to head to tell the world how a product is. That’s why social media platform like Facebook and Twitter is important for customer service. Example of company which use Twitter for customer service:

Ø JetBlue Excels in Responsiveness. Airline delays are one of the most common causes of customer frustration. JetBlue ensures they are responsive to their customers because they understand it’s important for continued customer’s loyalty. They engage with happy customers but they also responds to and help frustrated customers as quickly as possible.

JetBlue is to be extremely responsive to customers mentioning their brand. Whether they send public a reply or a private DM to answer a question, they are quickly to interact. They reached out to their frustrated customer within the hour. Social media platform help companies to response quickly to customer. Many companies dedicated full-time employees to the task of responding to customers on social media. Social media help to satisfy customer needs. Moreover, social media help find all this things:

ü  Social listening

Listen for conversations about your company, competitors or other topics of interest.

ü  Social conversation

Finding and responding to online conversations – engaging with others in social media.

ü  Social marketing

Launching and running campaigns and promotions in social media.

ü  Social analytics

Measuring and analyzing results of social media efforts across various platforms.

ü  Social influencer

Identifying and engaging with influencers that are relevant to your company or industry.

Social media platform is a cheaper than traditional marketing and advertising methods. Promote a product using social networking sites by determining where their customers and potential customers are, and getting their product visible on those sites:

Ø  Facebook page

Companies’ product can have its own page. Where people can like and comment on it, leave reviews and even link to your website, so they can buy it. Companies can offer incentives such as coupons and discounts. Invite people to share company page with their friends, so company community can grow.

Ø  Twitter account

Companies can set up account on Twitter for their product and promote it by attracting followers. Companies have to come up with brief messages that describe and promote their product. Follow people, brand and companies that might be interested in their product. The more people a company follow, the more followers that company have a chance of attracting. In our opinion, all company is best suited to use social media platform. At the same time, the company should figure out what they want to accomplish via social media.